Chapter 3: Carrying His Baby

Hermione drummed a hand over her slightly curved stomach, tears swimming behind her big, brown eyes. When she had first started throwing up, she had thought it was nothing. Just a bad stomach bug. When the illness had persisted, she had blanched upon reading the clues…. and recalling how in neither time that they made love had she or Ron used any kind of protection.

Quietly, Hermione purchased a pregnancy test, then one afternoon took her lunch break at home to complete it. The minutes of waiting passed by like hours, at an agonizing pace.

When she had finally worked up the nerve to check the lines on the stick, she had collapsed in tears upon seeing the two pink lines. She was pregnant. She was carrying Ron's baby. In seven months, she would be mother to a child whose father was married to someone else.

For all of a second, Hermione considered getting an abortion. A development like this, if it ever got out, would ruin Ron's marriage, if not his career. And Ron was a prominent Auror – the press would have a field day. Even if he was in a loveless marriage, Hermione loved him too much to break it up with a child.

She curled a protective arm around her womb, where she and Ron's child grew within. No. If this was to be all that she got to keep of the man she loved, then she would keep it. Lavender could have him as husband, but the paranoid harpy would never be, could never say she was, the mother of his child.

With that decision firmly made, Hermione understood there was only one thing left to do: she had to tell Ron. He deserved to know he was going to be a father. Besides, her lunch break was close to being over anyway.

So thinking, she proceeded back to the Ministry with her head held high. She didn't stop at her office, preferring instead to go straight to Auror headquarters. As she rounded the corner, she briefly froze with terror at the possibility that she would walk in on Lavender with him, but when she knocked and Ron answered the door, she was relieved to find him alone.

"Hey," she murmured, a smile fighting its way onto her lips in spite of herself, her love for him filling her up like a wellspring. "Can we talk?"

"Yeah." Ushering her in, Ron closed the door behind her. Hugging herself, arms cradling her womb, Hermione forced herself to not beat about the bush. She had out with it:

"I'm pregnant."

Her heart broke as she watched all the color drain from Ron's face. "You….you're sure?" he stuttered.

She nodded, composing herself with surprising dignity. "Yes. I took the test late this morning."

For a moment, there was silence, as Ron remained rooted to the spot, frozen. Then, suddenly, he was sweeping her into his arms, tilting her head back and kissing her furiously on the mouth. Swooning against him, her knees buckling, Hermione let out a happy sigh into his lips and prolonged, deepened the kiss; she could give a damn at this point if anyone walked in on them now, embracing like this. She shuddered with delight as she felt Ron's palms come between them, cupping the slight swell to her belly.

"Is it a boy or a girl?" he murmured.

"It's a girl!" she whispered breathlessly, the sound turning into a giggle as Ron kissed her again.

"Blimey….." he breathed. "I love you! You…. are the most sexy…" he kissed her earlobe. "woman….." A kiss to her nose. "Ever…." A chaste peck on her lips, causing her to beam, eyes shining. "And you're going to make an amazing mum!"

Hermione blushed, leaning in. "I. Love. You. Ronald. Weasley." She punctuated each word with a kiss.

They finally broke apart, giggling happily, and Ron picked her up and swirled her around, causing Hermione to shriek in delight.

It was only when she remembered….

"Wait. What about Lavender?"

Ron shrugged as if this was of no consequence. "I'll divorce her. I should have done it a long time ago."

Resting her hands lightly on the planes of his chest, Hermione cocked an eyebrow. "You're not just saying that out of some sense of…. obligation or…."

"Hermione:" and taking her hands in his, Ron lifted their joined palms between them. "I love you. And I love our daughter. You and our baby…." He nuzzled her. "You've given me a way out, and I'm taking it!"

Hermione smiled, before biting her lip. "What will you tell her?"

"The truth. She deserves it."

She didn't know why, but she felt the need to implore with him: "Be gentle."

"I will. The fall-out will be bad, but hopefully brief. And don't worry:" He rubbed a hand over her stomach. "I'll protect you. I'll protect both my girls."

Hermione grinned. "I know you will," she cooed, daintily looping her arms about his neck. "Now: deep breath, and…."

The couple sank into another long, dizzying kiss.

It took a couple of months, but Ron divorced Lavender in due order. The quickly former Mrs. Weasley was enraged and hurt, of course, but she didn't fight or attempt to retaliate against Hermione. In return, Ron allowed the cause of the divorce proceedings to go forward under grounds of infidelity.

The moment he was free, Ron got down on one knee and proposed to Hermione, who by now was clearly expecting, round and beautiful. She happily accepted, and a wedding at the Burrow was thrown together in a matter of weeks.

On the day of her wedding, Hermione dressed in a loose-fitting bridal gown. Her stomach was happily not quite yet out to her feet, but she was still clearly showing as she happily let her father walk her down the aisle.

Breathlessly exchanging rings and vows with Ron, the man she had always loved, Hermione cried happy tears as she proclaimed for all to hear: "I love my husband."

The minister blessed their union, pronouncing Ron and Hermione husband and wife.

Hermione beamed, the tears of joy still streaming down her cheeks as Ron took her in his arms and kissed her deeply, her womb containing their baby nestled between the newlyweds as they embraced and kissed. Melting into her wedding kiss, lightheaded enough that she absently tossed her wedding bouquet aside without caring where it fell, the new Mrs. Weasley had no more doubts. There was only Ron, her husband (Ron was her husband!), their unborn child, and the scent of dying roses in Mrs. Weasley's garden beyond.

Hmm. Rose, Hermione…. Weasley thought, as she and Ron dreamily broke apart, smiling into each other's eyes. I rather like that as a name. Rose….